In this series, we look through the most recent Dividend Channel”DividendRank” report, and then we cherry pick only those companies that have experienced insider buying within the past six months. The officers and directors of a company tend to have a unique insider’s view of the business, and presumably the only reason an insider would choose to take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So when stocks turn up that see insider buying, and are also top ranked, investors are wise to take notice. One such company is Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE: IRET), which saw buying by Director Jeffrey K. Woodbury.

Back on July 11, Woodbury invested $18,220.00 into 2,000 shares of IRET, for a cost per share of $9.11. In trading on Friday, bargain hunters could buy shares of Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE: IRET) and achieve a cost basis 11.0% cheaper than Woodbury, with shares changing hands as low as $8.11 per share. Investors Real Estate Trust shares are currently trading +0.86% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of IRET shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Looking at the chart above, IRET’s low point in its 52 week range is $7.70 per share, with $10.02 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $8.18. By comparison, below is a table showing the prices at which insider buying was recorded over the last six months:

Purchased

Insider

Title

Shares

Price/Share

Value

04/05/2013

Charles A. Greenberg

SVP – Commercial Asset Mgmt

145

$9.29

$1,349.99

04/05/2013

Ted E. Holmes

SVP – Finance

129

$9.29

$1,199.98

04/05/2013

Stephen Stenehjem

Director

323

$9.29

$2,999.97

04/05/2013

W. David Scott

Director

1,346

$9.29

$12,499.86

04/08/2013

Mark W. Reiling

EVP Asset Management

1,000

$9.56

$9,560.00

04/26/2013

Diane K. Bryantt

EVP & CFO

1,965

$9.77

$19,197.85

07/05/2013

Ted E. Holmes

SVP – Finance

168

$8.34

$1,400.00

07/05/2013

Charles A. Greenberg

SVP- Commercial Asset Mgmt

189

$8.34

$1,575.00

07/05/2013

W. David Scott

Director

1,498

$8.34

$12,500.00

07/08/2013

John D. Stewart

Director

470

$8.70

$4,087.12

07/11/2013

Jeffrey K. Woodbury

Director

2,000

$9.11

$18,220.00

07/05/2013

Stephen Stenehjem

Director

360

$8.34

$3,000.00

The DividendRank report noted that among the coverage universe, IRET shares displayed both attractive valuation metrics and strong profitability metrics. For example, the recent IRET share price of $8.11 represents a price-to-book ratio of 1.7 and an annual dividend yield of 6.41% — by comparison, the average company in Dividend Channel’s coverage universe yields 4.3% and trades at a price-to-book ratio of 2.0. The report also cited the strong quarterly dividend history at Investors Real Estate Trust, and favorable long-term multi-year growth rates in key fundamental data points.

The report stated, ”Dividend investors approaching investing from a value standpoint are generally most interested in researching the strongest most profitable companies, that also happen to be trading at an attractive valuation. That’s what we aim to find using our proprietary DividendRank formula, which ranks the coverage universe based upon our various criteria for both profitability and valuation, to generate a list of the top most ‘interesting’ stocks, meant for investors as a source of ideas that merit further research.”

The annualized dividend paid by Investors Real Estate Trust is $0.52/share, currently paid in quarterly installments, and its most recent dividend ex-date was on 09/12/2013. Below is a long-term dividend history chart for IRET, which the report stressed as being of key importance. Indeed, studying a company’s past dividend history can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue.

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